Timo K. | Sales & Recruiting

Fired after 8 months, built my own firm. Salesperson by accident, headhunter by passion. Lost on what's next? Sales opens doors. Start there: free newsletter ↓

[Timo K. | Sales & Recruiting @TimoInSales]

Fired after 8 months. Zero placements.

I'm 45 now. Used cars, then consulting, then recruiting. I fell into recruiting by accident, and my first employer let me go before I'd placed a single person.

A small agency took me on. I became its top producer, then built my own firm. 10+ years in sales since.

It took me from not knowing what to do with my life to working with clients, candidates and rooms I never expected to be in.

I paid more than I made along the way. Rectifying that.

I write for guys who don't know what to do with their life. My answer: start in sales. It's the best school I know for people, money and yourself, and it opens more doors than most degrees.

Still fighting my demons. I haven't won, but I've identified most of them.

Berlin. DM me.

[Timo K. | Sales & Recruiting @TimoInSales]

@dharmesh The people who win with agents keep testing past the first bad result. The tools aren't magic, but they get good fast.

[Timo K. | Sales & Recruiting @TimoInSales]

@alxberman Volume only works if the first 10 seconds earn the next minute. 80 touches a day with a sharp opener beats 200 with a lazy one.

[Timo K. | Sales & Recruiting @TimoInSales]

Uncomfortable truth: most people don't fail at sales because of bad luck or a bad product.
They fail because they never do the boring daily work: the calls, the follow-ups, the review of what went wrong.
Nobody can do that part for you. The buck stops with you.

[Timo K. | Sales & Recruiting @TimoInSales]

@NextDestinyxex Exactly. Nobody sees the 3,000 dials before the first placement. That's the part people want to skip.

[Timo K. | Sales & Recruiting @TimoInSales]

Anyone can rent a Lamborghini for a day.

Nobody can rent 10 years of showing up.

I was fired after 8 months with zero placements. Nobody saved me. I made the calls, got it wrong, made more calls.

Stop looking for the shortcut. Start with sales, pick up the phone, and let the work be your proof.

[Timo K. | Sales & Recruiting @TimoInSales]

Rough math for a new caller: 100 calls, 90 say no, 10 listen, 2 say yes.
You don't need to be good yet. You need to get to 100.

[Timo K. | Sales & Recruiting @TimoInSales]

@Tim_Denning The commute is the pay cut nobody puts in the contract. Two hours a day is 10 hours a week. Most people never count it.

[Timo K. | Sales & Recruiting @TimoInSales]

@Mr_HadiH The buck stops with you. A boss is a client you can't easily fire. Learn a skill people pay you for directly, and no single paycheck owns you.

[Timo K. | Sales & Recruiting @TimoInSales]

@Codie_Sanchez @hubermanlab Losing is an event, not an identity. I got fired from my first recruiting job after 8 months with zero placements. That was a bad chapter, not who I am.

[Timo K. | Sales & Recruiting @TimoInSales]

@NEVERDOOMPRO Nobody came for me either. First recruiting job: €500 a month, fired after 8 months with zero placements. I got better on the phone and became top producer at the next agency. The buck stops with you.

[Timo K. | Sales & Recruiting @TimoInSales]

@Tim_Denning Four years and a pile of debt to avoid the one skill that pays fast: talking to people who don't want to talk to you. Sales pays you while you learn it.

[Timo K. | Sales & Recruiting @TimoInSales]

@MichaelSaruggia @SalesPsych0 Message and offer have to attract the same person. If the hook pulls the wrong crowd, no offer fixes conversion. Fix the message first.

[Timo K. | Sales & Recruiting @TimoInSales]

@TheGeoMethod Repeating it back is underrated. Half the time they hear their own objection out loud and soften it themselves. The other half you finally learn what the real objection is.

[Timo K. | Sales & Recruiting @TimoInSales]

@SujinBuilds Exactly.

[Timo K. | Sales & Recruiting @TimoInSales]

Scripts aren't the problem. Reading them is.
A good salesperson always works from a script, but knows it by heart and lives it. The words sound like theirs, so the other person hears a human and not a page.
Learn it until you can forget it.

[Timo K. | Sales & Recruiting @TimoInSales]

Hot take: take the sales job with the most calls, not the best starting salary.
Reps beat comfort. In a year the skill pays more than the starting pay ever did.

[Timo K. | Sales & Recruiting @TimoInSales]

Starting in sales with no experience?
Week 1: learn one opening line.
Week 2: make 20 calls a day.
Week 3: write down what failed.
I'm turning this into a free newsletter: https://t.co/e6pCCycOKw

[Timo K. | Sales & Recruiting @TimoInSales]

I sold used cars before I ever recruited.
Nobody teaches you more about people than someone about to spend money they'd rather keep.
Watch what they ask. Watch what they avoid.

[Timo K. | Sales & Recruiting @TimoInSales]

I partly agree with you. US is a different market and especially tech as in IT and that whole startup BS eco-system is a totally different beast.

Nonetheless, none of that takes away from my previous statement that actual wins and successes mean more than tenure duration.

Plus, if you want to compare notes, we should also get into the questions of whether we recruit perm, freelance or staffing.

[Timo K. | Sales & Recruiting @TimoInSales]

Write down every objection you hear this week.
Next week, write the answer you wish you'd given.
In a month you'll have your own playbook, and it will beat most courses.

[Timo K. | Sales & Recruiting @TimoInSales]

@TechSalesGuy I sold used cars before I ever recruited, and that taught me more about people than any class would have. My first recruiting job paid 500 euros a month and I got fired after 8 months with zero placements. A sales major gets you the vocabulary. The phone gets you the skill.